Is it true that on medieval maps they wrote “Dragons live here”?

According to a common stereotype, it was customary to designate the white spots on ancient European maps by the Latin phrase Hic Sunt Dracones. We checked whether this practice was really popular.

The phrase about dragons has long become synonymous with another Latin phrase Terra Incognita (“Unknown Earth”) and is often used outside of context. For example, in 1963 at Harvard University Edition The Correspondent It was noted: “The prospects are such that if the current policy is not replaced by the opposite and new bills will not be rejected, the president will become similar to a medieval cartographer, armed with state coercion and arbitrarily, but effectively signing the globe with the words of Hic Sunt Dracones.” Similarly, the phrase is determined in Soviet publications "Essays on the history of natural science and technology" And "Philosophy, natural science, social development". She was widespread in works of art, including series "Star path" And "Stay alive", series of Romanov Terry Pratchetta "Flat world" and Henry Lyona Oldie "Dikari Oykumena". In a computer game Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars This phrase meets the hero whenever he tries to get to one of the corners of the map.

Many centuries ago, the borders of the resulting on Earth included a relatively small part of its surface, whether it be land or sea. The notorious Terra Incognita counts, for the first time appeared in the "Guide to Geography" Claudius Ptolemy in the region of 150 e. To designate the vast zone in the south, it disappeared from cards only in the 19th century. And for most of this range, the art of cartography reflected the fears and beliefs of its time. A thrill before the strength of the natural elements was projected onto cards in the form of fantastic figures, in particular marine monsters. These Scylles and Haribda of their era at the same time were at the same time exquisite decorative elements, dubious zoological facts, and today - valuable evidence of the ideas of Europeans. Several cards have come to us, on which we can see dragons. Among them:

• Map from Psalms early 1260s. Dragons as symbols of sin are in the lower part of the image, balancing Jesus and angels from above, but outside the map itself.

• On Bojia map (around 1430) In the India area, you can see dragon -like figures, and under them the text: “Hic Etiam Homines Magna Cornua Habentes Longitudine Quatuor Pedum, et Sunt Etiam Serpentes Tante Magnitudinis, Ut Unum Bovem Comedant Integrum (“There are also people with huge four -foot horns, as well as snakes of such sizes that they can eat a whole bull”).

• On the map Fra Mauro (around 1450) depicts the fictional island of dragons in the Atlantic Ocean. And the inscription near Herat on the territory of modern Afghanistan reports that in the nearby mountains “there are several dragons whose foreheads that heal many ailments” and describes the way of hunting local residents for these dragons.

• On the Japanese map JISIN-BEN (XIX century) The world is surrounded by a uroboros - a dragon biting its tail that causes earthquakes.

As you can see, the dragons appeared on some ancient cards, but even in meaning and location they did not replace the “Hic Sunt Dracones” mark. But what about the text itself? Indeed, a similar map, or rather the globe, exists.

It's about copper Khanty Globe - Lenoksa - The third largest from the currently known globes, dating from approximately 1508. The inscription "HC SVNT DRACONES" is located at the very southeast of Asia, in the area of ​​modern China or Indonesia. Since this region was already well known to Europeans, there are two main versions of the meaning of the inscription:

1. speech Maybe go about the Varan of the island of Komodo, or Komodsky dragons;
2. Back in the 19th century, when the globe was discovered, it appeared assumptionwhat is meant a certain Asian kingdom of Dagroian, described Marco Polo.

Oddly enough, until 2012, this product was the only famous monument of antiquity on which we could meet the text of interest to us. However, ten years ago humanity discovered for itself globe, made of two halves of an ostrich egg and, apparently, the prototype of the Hunt Globus-Lenox, because they are identical, and the dating of the “ostrich” globe is a little older. At the same time, there is a well -founded hypothesis that Leonardo da Vinci created it.

Moreover, it can be noted that the text “Hic Sunt Dracones” (or “HC SVNT DRACONES”) until the end of the 19th century, when the first description of the Hunt - Lenox globe appeared, Not found not in any The literature, which did not prevent this fact from becoming a popular legend in the 20th century. The classic of Detective Dorothy Seyers, which in 1928, attacked her hand to its spread. I mentioned The inscription "On the old map" in his story "Lord Peter examines the body." Seyers professionally studied the literature of the Renaissance, but it seems that the specialist in the geographical side of the issue was not, unlike her colleague Umberto Eco. The latter in two of his novels at once ("The name of the rose" And "Baudolino") In a similar context, the Latin phrase “Hic Sunt Leones” (“Lions are found”), which was really quite common on ancient maps and was precisely to unknown lands. And fans of Viktor Hugo's work can recall this expression in his novel "The person who laughs": “On the geographical maps of the 15th century, a large nameless space was depicted in the corner, on which three words were drawn:“ Hic Sunt Leones ”(“ Lions live here ” - lat.). There are the same unexplored areas in the soul of a person. Somewhere inside us passions are worried and boil, and about this dark corner of our soul can also be said: "Hic Sunt Leones."

It was this expression, apparently, that became the prototype of the phrase “Hic Sunt Dracones” popular today in the works of art, which is actually found only on two identical globes, and presumably in a slightly different context.

Images on the cover and inside the publication: Wikipedia

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      No Old Maps Actually Say "Here Be Dragons"